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Updated: Sep 23, 2025

Method to Visualize and Analyze Membrane Interacting Proteins by Transmission Electron Microscopy
Published on: March 5, 2017
Digging into the biophysical features of cell membranes with lipid-DNA conjugates
Ahsan Ausaf Ali1, Yousef Bagheri1, Mingxu You1
1Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA.
Abstract:
Lipid-DNA conjugates have emerged as highly useful tools to modify the cell membranes. These conjugates generally consist of a lipid anchor for membrane modification and a functional DNA nanostructure for membrane analysis or regulation. There are several unique properties of these lipid-DNA conjugates, especially including their programmability, fast and efficient membrane insertion, and precise sequence-specific assembly. These unique properties have enabled a broad range of biophysical applications on live cell membranes. In this review, we will mainly focus on recent tremendous progress, especially during the past three years, in regulating the biophysical features of these lipid-DNA conjugates and their key applications in studying cell membrane biophysics. Some insights into the current challenges and future directions of this interdisciplinary field have also been provided.
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